MHR 405 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Belief, Shift Work, Social Loafing

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Human Resources
• Course: MHR 405
• Professor: Sathy Sritharakumar

Document Summary

What is a team: exist to fulfill a purpose, mutually accounting for achieving common goal (influence each other) Informal groups: groups that exist primarily for the benefit of members, reasons why these exist: Innate drive to bond: social identity (identify selves by group membership, goal accomplishment, emotional support. Team advantages: better decision-making, products/services, better information sharing, social cognitive theory - learning for others. Team challenges: process losses - resources needed for team maintenance, brooks" law - adding more people to a project in process results in delays (software project) Social loafing - members are less productive when working in a team. Complex tasks divisible into specialized roles: well-structured tasks (clear-cut expectations, steps clearly defined, higher task interdependence, team members share materials, information & expertise, usually better because of high interdependence (better communication, motivates team membership. Less effective if task goals differ (ie serving different clients) - use other coordinating mechanisms.